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Friday, 22 April 2011

My fellow Gaels, be you Republican, Nationalist or otherwise count yourself as an Irish Patriot, I feel the need to address this letter to you with regards to upcoming events involving the British Royal Family. It is a plea, rather then a demand, for civility and good character.

As you all know, I am no advocate for the rejoining of Ireland into Great Britain. Far from it, my Monarchist sentiments are separatist and nativist as should be clear to all who read my blog. So I am not going to talk about such an issue.

Rather this is a plea, with regards to agitation amongst Irish Republicans in the Republic of Ireland, towards the Queen of England's state visit, and an encouragement of Irish Nationalists and Patriots to not fall into the pitfall of old hatreds.

To this I will seek to convince you how Her Majesty's visit to Ireland, benefits Ireland as its status as a Sovereign nation rather then a subject one. And to do that I must point out the difference between a visit by the British Monarch to Ireland 100 years ago, and the visit this year.

The difference is simple yet incredibly important. 100 years ago, the British Sovereign visited Ireland as its King and Head of State. Its ruler. At such a time we were very much subject nation. The visit was, in that sense, a personal one of a ruler to his subjects. This Year's visit is one of a stately nature.

By engaging in a State visit, Her Majesty the Queen does not wipe away or invalidate the grievances of the past and that we should all forget the bad stuff ever happened on either side, such as the rather rude telling off those West Britons in the Irish Media has been keen to pile on the already miffed Irish Republican community, rather, the State visit does something much more important for the Republic and one Irish Patriots should be more then happy with.

It is official, symbolic recognition by Britain of the status of Ireland as a Separate entity and Sovereign State. It is, while not written and certainly unspoken, the admittance by the British Government of the loss of Ireland as a territorial claim in any event, which coincides nicely with the past admission of the 'no selfish or strategic interest' we have heard with regards to the Northern Territory.

The visit of a reigning sovereign to Ireland is not an infraction upon the nation's sovereignty or a bold claim by said sovereign to Ireland. This is foolish thinking, one need not only look at the recent visit by the Sovereign prince of Monaco and his fiancée to Ireland, or the visit of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Llama. Both of whom are in fact Sovereigns, one Ruling and one in Exile. Instead, I would advise my fellow Irishmen to capitalize on this visit to show to the World the worth of Ireland. I beg of you to not engage in any plans by organisations to disrupt the visit, cause damage of a physical or proprietary nature to your fellow Irishmen wherever the Queen visits with her Husband, as this will hurt our nation's prestige by engaging in selfish activities that will no sooner help you reclaim the North of Ireland then help Cain finish his wanderings.

As an added plea, to Irish Republicans in particular, with regards to the upcoming Royal wedding. I will not argue you should care for the Joy of England, because that would be inane and irrelevant to you, in fact, I fully believe the wedding should not matter to you by principle. What instead I am asking you to do, is to refuse to attend the rival street parties being organised by British Republicans to protest the Royal Wedding celebrations, they have invited republicans from across Europe to join them.

I will not speak much about them, or their plans for they also have little to do with you or your goals with regards to Ireland. So you may wonder, what then, was the reason why I beg of you to refuse to join these Republicans in their activities? Surely they are as republican as you are? And this is where I am going to have to say no. They are not the same as you, at the very least, not the same as you from where you consider yourselves. For while Irish Republicans consider themselves the spiritual successors of Wolfe tones and the Irish Volunteers of the Easter Rising, the British Republicans are descendants of a much darker, deadlier beast. A shadow daemon who's name is still anathema to any sensible Irishman.

The British Republicans are the spiritual successors of the Arch Heretic, Oliver Cromwell and his Despoiler New Model Army which ravaged Ireland during the Jacobite Wars, banished our nobility and started the centuries of woe we romanticize in earnest.

If you care nothing of the British Monarchy, you certainly care for Ireland at the least. And I beg of you, not as a monarchist, but as an Irishman, for civility and principle. Do not lend credence to the British Republican movement, for by extension you put your lot in with Cromwell. And truly believe the ends of Revolution justify the means of Revolution. Which in this context I truly, in my heart, do not hold that most of you really believe such.

Monday, 11 April 2011

(Apologies for my absence, University work is piling on and I had some personal issues to get over before I returned to regular blog updates. I have several pieces I wish to discuss backlogged on top of my already backlogged issues that I probably won't get to discuss in detail before the next interruption to regular blog business. I beg your forgiveness and thank you for your patience) I was of course, more then a little delighted when I was made aware of the Princely House of Grimaldi's visit to Ireland. However, sadly mostly to do with issues I have already mentioned, I could not indulge my innate monarchist urge to glue myself to the news of the event and follow it as enthusiastically as I would have loved to do. The Visit had the usual formalities one would expect of state visits, guards of honour, exchanges of gifts, meeting the public, etc. And frankly most news reports I've seen over the matter have been resounding positive... if somewhat muted. This of course bothers me because it is nowhere nearly as big an issue as I would have liked it to be. ''Oh its just an official state visit by a reigning crowned Head of Europe, its not as if we need to publicise this all that much, why its not as if the Irish public are deeply unhappy and depressed during this recession, our economic enslavement to Europe and the slovening cynicism of our crapsack of a political governing system and desperately need something positive to keep their minds off of it all.'' You can see why I am displeased by the lack of exposure in practical terms. Britain has the Royal wedding to look forward to, we had a Royal visit, why couldn't that have been a scene of goodwill and wholesomeness in the Irish view? Because the media didn't want it to be too exposed.

Actually, I'd like to take this time to mention how much I actually like the design of the Irish Defence Forces Officer Uniforms. Reserved but dignified, if a little utilitarian. Makes for a nice contrast with the uniform of the Monegasque officer as the Sovereign prince is welcomed at McKee Barracks to a 21 gun salute and inspects the Irish Guard of Honour respectively. Although in my humble opinion things could've been better if the Republic hadn't of disbanded the Blue Hussars.

However, catching up, I am delighted to report the state visit was a resounding success, and the Irish public were introduced to reigning monarchism that could not be simply be campaigned against or capitalised by Irish Republicans. After all as I often point out in Ireland, however erroneously, monarchism is associated with Britishness, Britishness is un-Irish, therefore monarchism is un-Irish, or stupid, or just evil to those who don't care about patritoism enough to worry about their own damn culture. This cannot be done against His Serene Highness Prince Albert II, nor the Princess-to-be.

Afterall, the House of Grimaldi is Roman Catholic isn't it? Suddenly the religious issue the more sectarian of Irish Nationalists have against the House of Windsor and their perception of Monarchism is thrown aschew. For most Nationalist this doesn't prove that monarchism isn't un-Irish, but it goes a long way to shake a rather ugly, unspoken, underlying belief that being a monarchist is 'un-catholic'. (This is an ugly disease of a belief that isn't pushed too strongly by the Republican movement in Ireland but it is pushed nonetheless, however covertly), Now there was the real kicker, the Sovereign Prince is, afterall, the son of an American woman of Irish and German descent, Princess Grace. Now the republicans are presented with a real problem when it comes to His Seren Highness, they cannot say he is un-Catholic, and given the Irish Attitude to welcoming even the most distant of Irish descendents, could they really say that the Prince is not Irish?

Not after attending a traditional music session in County Mayo, his ancestral home through his mother they can't.

Now, the more machievelian side of me plans to exploit this wholesale in my dealings with Irish Nationalists not convinced of the Monarchist Cause, the sort who equate monarchism with Britishness. And yes, I am sad to say, no matter how unjust people think it is, it is a given fact, there is a resounding unbelievable resentment towards 'west britonism' in Ireland, and this is the result of History, and while I'm pretty sure most Irishmen don't resent the English or Britain in general nearly as much as past chuvanism would imply. They still absolutely resent being even remotely considered 'British', which is highly ironic given the current prevalent Anglo-American culture in Ireland that is slowly poisoning us. Also you may think it unseemly of me to use the nature of the Sovereign Prince's ancestry via the good Princess Grace as political ammunition against republican nationalists here, and you'd be right, but I have to do it anyway. Irishmen respect family a tremendous deal even if it isnt overtly admitted in public *cough*political-families*cough*, and sometimes the only way you can get through to them is with a living example of how its possible to be a good catholic, of Irish descent AND a Monarchist to break through the revolutionary twattle that has brainwashed the majority of the world as well as the Irish. Sides, I need something to counter the blather over the American President's Irish Descent which the news machine in Ireland is already warming up for his potential visit.

In my next few posts I plan to deal with a few nagging issues, firstly the Issue of Jacobitism in Irish Monarchism, which I have recieved interest from a number of readers for my views on the Irish Jacobite Cause. As well as that a study on the origins of Irish Nationalism, and how my study of it has actually help foster my dissent from the 'traditional' republican view of Irish Nationalism. (Ironically enough this was also the subject of my more academic concerns in University recently) As well as my other project studies such as my Restoration series, which looking back on, needs some re-working.